In NGO circles today there is a great deal of hope about economic growth in developing countries and the development of an information society as a result of the growing presence of technological possibilities in communication. At first sight, African cities (and the countryside now too) seem to be flooded with different ICT possibilities that are expected to bring ‘development’. Studies in ICT development have indeed shown some social change: economic development is visible in local markets, youth are increasingly being connected and there are possibilities for social relating that were never there before.
Societies in Africa that were very mobile of old are now integrating these changes in specific ways. This may result in these societies joining the world at large but it might also lead to Africans becoming part of the so-called Fourth World (Castells), a world disconnected from others and experiencing new inequalities but without a specific geographical location. The changes in communication technology are transforming societies both in the North and in the South and are blurring the divisions between the two.
Thinking on technology and society has gone far beyond the technological determinism that often informs discourses in development circles. The mobile phone has become a symbol of the new communication era and is challenging societies and creating new forms of relating between the North and the South. This paper uses the mobile phone and its introduction in Africa as an example of how the new wave of ICT is leading to cultural, social and economic dynamics that could take societies in unexpected directions that may not, as such, open up society but instead close part of it off.
In NGO circles today there is a great deal of hope about economic growth in developing countries and the development of an information society as a result of the growing presence of technological possibilities in communication. At first sight, African cities (and the countryside now too) seem to be flooded with different ICT possibilities that are expected to bring ‘development’. Studies in ICT development have indeed shown some social change: economic development is visible in local markets, youth are increasingly being connected and there are possibilities for social relating that were never there before.
Societies in Africa that were very mobile of old are now integrating these changes in specific ways. This may result in these societies joining the world at large but it might also lead to Africans becoming part of the so-called Fourth World (Castells), a world disconnected from others and experiencing new inequalities but without a specific geographical location. The changes in communication technology are transforming societies both in the North and in the South and are blurring the divisions between the two.
Thinking on technology and society has gone far beyond the technological determinism that often informs discourses in development circles. The mobile phone has become a symbol of the new communication era and is challenging societies and creating new forms of relating between the North and the South. This paper uses the mobile phone and its introduction in Africa as an example of how the new wave of ICT is leading to cultural, social and economic dynamics that could take societies in unexpected directions that may not, as such, open up society but instead close part of it off.
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